Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to equipment for remotely controlling other devices and, more particularly, to a remote control apparatus that has a primary emergency stop feature and a redundant emergency stop feature.
Related Art
Remote control devices of numerous types are well known. Some remote control devices control televisions or other relatively benign devices and provide ON/OFF functions and other appropriate functions that control the operation of the device. Other equipment such as earth moving equipment and foundry equipment can be remotely controlled, but such devices are not of a benign nature because of the damage that can be done by such devices if they somehow become out of control.
The remote controlling of certain devices therefore necessitates an emergency stop (ESTOP) function that immediately causes the device to go into a “safe” state. For some devices, a “safe” state might be a shutdown of the device, but for other devices, the “safe” state may be something different that is appropriate to the device and to the danger that might result from simply shutting down the device without taking some other action. Moreover, it would be desirable to enhance the reliability with which such devices can be caused to go to their “safe” states when it is desirable to do so.